Ever Been in Turkish Prison?

Call the wrong guy "mister" and you might be. Two officials of the Democratic People's Party were arrested for calling Abdulllah Ocalan, head of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker's Party, by a Turkic honorific meaning "respected and esteemed."

This constitutes "propaganda in favor of a terrorist organization," the Beeb reports.

Comments

[s.m. koppelman]

My first thought was, oh, there goes the Turkish government again, making a laughingstock of the country's 'democracy'.

Then I thought about what would happen if a couple of US Democratic congressmen, one of them of Mideastern or South Asian descent, made a public comment about the "wise and learned teacher Osama bin Laden". Would the outcome be much more enlightened?

[Eric the .5b]

Yes, we'd throw them out of office.

[Eric the .5b]

Nice thing about election years.

[Rebecca]

Well, given that American professors condemned America for bringing on the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and one called for "a million Mogadishus" and others called for diplomacy with Mr. bin Laden, I don't think we'd see much outrage here. If someone here called bin Laden "wise and learned" he'd be under suspicion by government bureaus - that's their job - but the person would get a sympathetic showing in the press, with ACLU reps showing up and condemning prejudice and decrying the loss of our fundamental right to praise a national enemy.

[Rebecca]

Hey, dudes, I'm reporting what actually happened on college campuses THE VERY DAY the planes smashed into the WTC. You think I'm joking. I only wish I were. (Actually, if I were joking, it'd be a very sick joke.) This is what actually happened on American university campuses - mine included - with people chanting "War is not the answer!" and that we should forgive the Afghanis and try talking about this first before going over and "bombing Afghanistan back to the stone age." This was the IMMEDIATE and ONGOING response on campus - and it was led by the professors. Students were quite active in the anti-war pro-diplomacy-with-Afghanistan and in calling for deeper research into the situation, perhaps al Qaeda was being unfairly targeted...... Again, I only wish it were a cruel, nasty joke. But I LIVED through this.

And the sky is blue, except when it rains. How's the sky where you are? 😉

[s.m. koppelman]

Rebecca, what color is the sky in your world?

[joe]

Give me a link to a legislator who called for diplomacy with Al Qaeda. Double dog dare you.

[Tee Hee]

I think Rebecca is just Andrew in a bra...

[Will Spencer]

I was web surfing last night, looking for a set of OBL quotes that I still can't find.

However, I did find a dozen web sites which blamed President Bush for the WTC bombing.

Try to remember that a significant percentage of the snide comments you make cheerfully on _Hit & Run_ would send you to prison in a significant percentage of the world.

Turkey is way ahead of most Muslim nations on freedom of speech issues. Heck, they aren't even *considering* executing these guys.